Friday, August 28, 2009

My Bad

So remember how I told you that we hooked our road nanny Claire Small up with some opening gigs on this tour? Pretty awesome right?

Except that I dropped a couple of very important balls

And the night before last, the ball droppage caught up with us.

My first mistake was not clueing Jim Finney, our intrepid road manager, into the whole situation until waaaay late in the game.

You see, a road manager is in charge of all the various parts and pieces that have to fit snuggly together in order for life on the road to run smoothly. He deals with the promoters and the venues as well as handling all things related to band members--hotel check in's and check outs, all leave times...basically he sets the schedule and makes sure we stick to it.

Without him, we would be lost. Literally. Like, left in a truckstop in the middle of the desert lost.

So, when there's an opener he needs to know.

And for some reason, it didn't occur to me until very late in the game to let him in on the whole situation.

I knew the wheel office knew and our booking agent knew and Claire knew what the haps were. But I should have been conveying all info to Jim from the beginning because my late notification caused him unneeded stress when he was advancing some shows. And one thing a road manager doss not need is more stress.

My bad.

Number two ball ball dropped? I forgot to advance the gigs. Or more precisely I failed to realize the importance of advancing gigs What does advancing a gig entail? Basically, the performer or performer's representative contacts the promoter to make sure they are on the same page--that your understanding of where and when you will be playing is in line with the people who hired you.

Instead, I assumed everyone was on the same page.

And we know what happens when we assume.

All the balls came crashing down in Berkley Springs, WV at the Star Theater which was slated to be Claire's first opening gig.

Except that the club had booked another opening act.

And because we hadn't advanced the show, we didn't know that until we got there.

And because of the schedule, there was no room for Claire.

Oh dude. My bad.

I wanted to crawl in a hole and hide my ball dropping face. Because had I been on top of things, we would have known beforehand! Luckily Claire is a super laid back and forgiving individual who was dissapointed, yes, but not angry.

And luckily the universe is awesome. Because the universe took the initiative to make up for my frackin' ball dropping arse.

The universe gave Claire another gig.

The same day of the Berkely Springs debacle of 2009, we got word that Claire had picked up another opening spot at our gig in Wolfesboro, NH. That was last night.

And Jim Finney knew all about it.

And Claire talked to the promoter.

And she played the opening slot.

And to top if off, she totally rocked the house.

Lisel and I stayed up for one song, during which my 8 month-old daughter watched Claire with rapt attention. Do you know what an 8 month-old's attention span is like? Well let me just say that rapt is a total rarity.

After the song I got Lisel gave me the signal that sleep was fast approaching, so I took her to the baby bus and started our bedtime routine. But I left the door open and listened to the rest of Claire's set while my baby drifted off to sleepy time. And it was lovely. Claire's voice, as clear and sparkly as a bell, singing beautiful songs, each one followed by applause and hoots and whistles. And the darkness settling in. And the baby lying next to me...these are the wonderful amazing moments.

So once again, the universe comes through. Which I am thankful for, because I certainly did not. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you just get lucky.